


To Begin the Morning

by theuniversalfiction (orphan_account)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cat, Cat Petting, Checking One's Priorities (and petting the cat), Keith in a sweater, Tea, but tea is okay, inspired by art (linked in summary), mornings suck, petting a cat, what's better than tea?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-06 19:59:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12217890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/theuniversalfiction
Summary: It pushed its head against his chest, and then his arm, pausing only to lean into the gentle strokes he was tracing down its back. Dark spots appeared on his pants, somehow making the black of his jeans darker, and the cat pressed onward. Finding the terrain of his crossed legs awkward to stand on, the cat made a disgruntledmrrffnoise and took care to balance itself properly before butting its head against his already occupied hand.“Buddy, I really can’t-” Keith tried to protest, but the cat stumbled and slammed a foot into his stomach. Making a less than dignifiedoof!sound, Keith raised his hand of tea above the cat’s head. “I’ll pet you with this once I’m done with the tea, okay?”The cat was not satisfied.Based off of this beautiful art!





	To Begin the Morning

Mornings were rough on the best of days, but Keith had found that there was little a warm cup of tea couldn’t do to improve his mood. He paid the barista with cash and saved them both the embarrassment of a failed smile. He was still too tired to try for something that wouldn’t cut like glass. In an hour or so that might change, but it seemed unlikely.

A cool breeze swept the hair off of his forehead and weaved ethereal fingers through the length of it when he opened the cafe’s door. _Wind’s really enjoying that, isn’t it?_ It was an innocent thought that his imagination ran with, and he felt fond of the childish delight the wind had found in his hair.

In an hour he needed to go to class, but for now he was free to do what he wanted. And at the moment what Keith wanted was to sit down on a bench and properly enjoy his tea, so he took the time to scope out a bench with a decent view of something other than the makeshift park bathrooms and make himself comfortable.

He ended up choosing a bench just off the sidewalk that looked over a soccer field, and settled in. There was something nice about being able to take time for himself, something he hadn’t known before just recently. It was, he reflected, the result of finally feeling safe in his own skin.

The cotton fiber of his sweater nipped at his skin as it slipped, slowly but surely, off of his shoulder, revealing more skin to the autumn breeze. Eyes fluttering shut, Keith drank in the clashing sensations of warm tea sliding down his throat and cool air caressing his skin.

In that moment, time was nothing more than a product of society, something created entirely to keep the human machine moving in sync, and in that moment he was not a small part of something bigger than himself but a child of the wind, born only to exist. It was a beautiful moment, one that he could afford thanks to the alarms set on his phone reminding him to get to class.

How nice it was, to simply exist.

Of course, the moment didn’t last. The universe had other plans for him, as evidenced by the soft warmth butting its head against his hip.

“Oh hello there,” Keith said, looking at the cat with the smile he hadn’t been able to summon earlier. Something like a purr that was more like a pleased rumble was coming from the small red cat, and his smile grew. “Where did you come from?”

The cat just purred louder and rubbed its head against his thigh with some force. Chuckling softly to himself, Keith presented his tea-less hand to the cat for inspection.

Faint hints of goosebumps rose up on his arms as the cat’s warm breath and cold nose pressed against him, but it was a pleasant sort of gooseflesh. Deciding that the hand was safe, the cat rubbed its forehead into his palm and let out a purposeful purr.

He scratched under the cat’s chin and it leaned into his touch, drool beading at the corners of its mouth as it became truly relaxed. Keith snickered a little; he’d never seen a cat who drooled when it was happy.

As he continued ruffling the hair just beneath the cat’s chin, Keith took a sip of his tea, determined to finish it before it got cold. The cat, seeing that there was in fact _another hand_ that could be put to better use petting its soft fur, chirped and climbed into Keith’s lap.

It pushed its head against his chest, and then his arm, pausing only to lean into the gentle strokes he was tracing down its back. Dark spots appeared on his pants, somehow making the black of his jeans darker, and the cat pressed onward. Finding the terrain of his crossed legs awkward to stand on, the cat made a disgruntled _mrrff_ noise and took care to balance itself properly before butting its head against his already occupied hand.

“Buddy, I really can’t-” Keith tried to protest, but the cat stumbled and slammed a foot into his stomach. Making a less than dignified _oof!_ sound, Keith raised his hand of tea above the cat’s head. “I’ll pet you with this once I’m done with the tea, okay?”

The cat was not satisfied.

Keith was a little concerned about the absolute diversity in the cat’s chirping. Really, if he hadn’t already known what it was he’d probably have mistaken it for a bird, or maybe a small flock of birds. What was even more unsettling was how desperate the cat was to be pet, and when a cat began climbing up your chest and rubbing its head against your chin the fight was, as they say, over.

“Okay! Okay I’ll pet you! Just let me put down my tea,” he said, thought it didn’t come out quite right because the cat was still rubbing its face against his.

In any other circumstance it would’ve been cute, but at the moment he was trying to finish his tea before it got cold, and he felt less than excited about the way things had gone. The cat, on the other hand, was positively _thrilled_ to have two hands running through its fur.

Its heavy rumbling transformed into fully fledged purrs. Keith could feel the vibrations in his stomach and hear the contented sounds just as well as he’d felt the breeze earlier, and some of his frustration melted.

The other half began planning ways to heat up his tea once he got to class. It was entirely possible Shiro would let him sneak into the teacher’s lounge to use the microwave, thought it was more likely he’d be able to get Matt to crack. He ran through the options and pet the cat on autopilot. It was a truly cute little creature.

He felt rather than saw the person come up behind him. At first he shrugged the feeling aside - he was sitting right next to a sidewalk, people were bound to come up behind him from time to time - but the person didn’t move. Keith had an uncanny feeling that he was being watched.

He turned to face the mysterious onlooker, eyebrow cocked in an unspoken challenge, but the person didn’t seem to mind. They offered him a toothy smile and gestured to the cat.

“That little fella’s been hiding around here for the past couple of weeks. Glad she’s gotten the nerve to come up and say hi to people now. Sorry to bother ya.”

And just like that, the mysterious person was gone, but their words sat with him for a while longer.

He looked down at the cat, who had contented herself with chewing on the hem of his sweater and kneading at his thighs. Was he really the first person she’d come up to, that she’d let pet her? He wouldn’t have guessed it from how friendly she was, though he supposed she might have been lonely.

“Are you lonely?” he asked the cat.

The cat chewed on his sweater.

“Would you like it if I visited you here in the mornings?” he asked.

The cat looked up at him and butted her head into his stomach before returning her attentions to his sweater.

Keith didn’t know much about cats, but he thought that she’d like that. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning,” he decided, and rubbed behind her ears.

Yeah, he’d be back tomorrow, because mornings were rough on the best of days, but a warm cup of tea and an attention seeking cat were more than enough to make up for it.

**Author's Note:**

> [I have a tumblr!](http://the-universalfiction.tumblr.com)


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